Running back competition
What we're trying to do is really get Folston back into as much of a competitive environment relative to 11-on-11 team work. He's got some strengths. He runs the inside zone play very well. When we get into some of our spread offensive sets, he's very, very good at keeping the ball inside the tackles and getting some box looks that are very favorable. He runs the ball extremely well inside where Josh runs the outside zone extremely well. Dexter has the speed that we're looking for. It's really all three of those guys and balancing their work over the past couple days.
Frustration from Folston or Zaire for having to earn starting jobs again?
No. It's been really for Tarean just [working] himself back into the physical condition necessary to play in the offense and gaining confidence to make that explosive cut. I think the last time he put his foot in the ground and was really explosive, he tore his ACl. Getting past that is where he's more focused. I don't think he's frustrated as well.
Malik is still working through the strength and it's a little tender and sore at times with that ankle so today we just worked on his base, getting his base back in there. I don't sense frustration. He's a competitive kid, but I don't think for one second regardless of what he said to everybody here that he was going to be handed the job. He knows me well enough that people are going to compete for jobs here.
Folston mental progress
I never felt like he wasn't one of our smarter players. It's always been about for him attention to detail, physical conditioning, strength, all of those things. Taking care of all of those things and being in the best physical condition that he can be. I think he's working hard at it. He's making great progress in the weight room and the realization that this game is one where you are being challenged now by some younger players has really been good for him. I think the competition has brought out the best in him.
Mentor last year?
I do. I think he's been a positive influence. When he was hurt, he was around. He traveled with us. I don't think the transition was easy for him certainly. There were things he could have done better, but overall he did the things I wanted him to do to be a better teammate and he did and I'm happy where he is right now.
Corey Holmes' speed translating to field?
That's a good question. There's track speed and there's in-line, straight line speed and then there's quite frankly football speed. I think that that's been the struggle for Corey the first couple years is to get that to translate and through playing fast and playing with confidence and I think he's gaining that. He's gaining the confidence and we're seeing definitely a different football player. He's not Will Fuller's speed yet, certainly. Although he runs at the same speed, he's not playing at the same speed yet. I think he's capable. He's certainly not there yet, but he's moving and trending in the right direction.
Left side of the offensive line dominant?
Those two players are really good. Really, really good. Mike's been our most efficient blocker and Quenton is in the best physical shape he's been in, moves extremely well for 346 pounds and he's a rare, rare, rare football player. He moves well, physically strong. Knows his assignments. We're very, very fortunate. And Sam's been very good. Those three guys are really, really solid football players for us and we would love the competition that is going on the right side.
We want to get Hunter Bivin over the next probably four or five periods of practices and in particular the periods where there's team competition we're getting him some guard work. We want to kick Bars out to some tackle work because we're still in a very competitive mode there on the right side. It's just exciting to see all these guys compete. There's good football players on the right side. We're still not there in terms of who's going to be where at those positions.
Anyone out there right now that can give you Fuller's speed to stretch the field?
Torii Hunter would be that guy right now. I think he's got top-end speed, elite speed. He can compete with the very best in the country. Corey is trending that way. He's not there yet. He's got to play with more confidence and attack the football a little bit more aggressively. Torii Hunter would be a guy right now that could continue to grow into that position. Those two guys have the skills necessary and Stepherson — I hate to put a lot on a freshman — right now he is an outstanding ball catcher. Maybe our best right now in terms of catching the football.
Corey Robinson
We're going to get an evaluation with the specialist to make sure we're covering all the bases with him. He's had a couple concussions. Obviously we want to do everything that we can to get him all the information necessary so we don't put him in a position where he doesn't feel comfortable getting back on the field. We'll do that next week and we'll have him in a better position relative to making a decision when we get back on the field.
Trumbetti
Good. We've just got to get him to cut it loose. Still a little bit at times we'd like to just see him go. There's just a little bit of apprehension at times and that's just confidence, but he's doing some good things. We just need to see it on a little more consistent basis.
We got some more activity out of Daelin Hayes today. He did some skelly and a little bit of pass rush. Good looking kid. We'll continue to work him. Jay Hayes is doing some good things for us. We're seeing some more consistency now that he's at a position where he feels a lot more comfortable. That position continues to evolve for us as well.
Daelin taking some contact?
We're being very cautious and he's got a shoulder we want to make sure is in a position that we're not pushing him in spring ball. He's in a harness. We're going to pick our spots with him. We're going to put him in a position where we can see some things from him, but I don't think we're going to overdo anything and put him in a very competitive situation.
How does Morgan bring people with him on defense
He's a physical player. Bringing that physicality to every practice, that physical toughness to our defense. Joe Schmidt was a smart player. He was a heady player. But he wasn't the most physically gifted player that we had. Nyles Morgan is a tough, physical football player. What we've asked him to do is be himself. You're not Joe Schmidt. He's doing a great job of getting us lined up. Now that you've got that and that's not an issue, he's a physical, tough player. We want that personality to come out and if that does, he will bring others around you and that toughness will start to show itself.
What do you want to see the rest of the spring?
I'd say more than anything else the receiver group, the young guys to continue to progress and gain consistency there. I would say from a competitive standpoint offensively, continue to run the ball effectively. We want to run the ball effectively offensively with three quarterbacks in there, three running backs.
Defensively, cornerback and safety play. We're a little thin at the linebacker position and we've got a slew of D-linemen that we want to continue to see develop. We've got a lot of work with those guys. Spring ball is really the development of that defensive line and defensive backfield on the defensive side.
Goal line and red zone self scouting
We had a young quarterback. He saw some things for the first time. The red zone requires an efficiency relative to throwing the football or running the ball and what we've tried to do a little bit later in the year that was more effective was running the football. We turned the ball over against BC, but we were trying to run the ball later in the year to help our quarterback. I think that that's what we went to, but we were effective and efficient against Stanford trying to run the ball. When we threw it, we weren't. Red zone efficiency is running the football and having a quarterback who is experienced down in that zone. It's not really scheme down there as much as quick decisions, being efficient, accurate and having a really good running game.
Spencer Perry
He's a long athlete. We're trying to find a spot for him right now and just giving him some different opportunities. He's young. He's developmental in terms of picking up the position right now. We really like him. It's going to take some work. We're going to need some more time with him. We just want to see him in different positions right now.
St. Brown
We're moving him around. We've got him at W quite a bit. Torii's kicked out to the X position. We wanted to see Torii out more at the X and EQ more at the W. We like the size at the W position more because of the short field matchups you get there. What I like about EQ is obviously his speed and size with the physical traits and he's really smart. He picks up the entire offense. He's got to be a more consistent ball catcher. That's what we've got to get from him more and I think he attacks the ball a little more aggressively. Those are the areas he needs to improve on. I really like his smarts, his physical conditioning and love his skill set in terms of his size. Attacking the football is what we're working on right now.
What we're trying to do is really get Folston back into as much of a competitive environment relative to 11-on-11 team work. He's got some strengths. He runs the inside zone play very well. When we get into some of our spread offensive sets, he's very, very good at keeping the ball inside the tackles and getting some box looks that are very favorable. He runs the ball extremely well inside where Josh runs the outside zone extremely well. Dexter has the speed that we're looking for. It's really all three of those guys and balancing their work over the past couple days.
Frustration from Folston or Zaire for having to earn starting jobs again?
No. It's been really for Tarean just [working] himself back into the physical condition necessary to play in the offense and gaining confidence to make that explosive cut. I think the last time he put his foot in the ground and was really explosive, he tore his ACl. Getting past that is where he's more focused. I don't think he's frustrated as well.
Malik is still working through the strength and it's a little tender and sore at times with that ankle so today we just worked on his base, getting his base back in there. I don't sense frustration. He's a competitive kid, but I don't think for one second regardless of what he said to everybody here that he was going to be handed the job. He knows me well enough that people are going to compete for jobs here.
Folston mental progress
I never felt like he wasn't one of our smarter players. It's always been about for him attention to detail, physical conditioning, strength, all of those things. Taking care of all of those things and being in the best physical condition that he can be. I think he's working hard at it. He's making great progress in the weight room and the realization that this game is one where you are being challenged now by some younger players has really been good for him. I think the competition has brought out the best in him.
Mentor last year?
I do. I think he's been a positive influence. When he was hurt, he was around. He traveled with us. I don't think the transition was easy for him certainly. There were things he could have done better, but overall he did the things I wanted him to do to be a better teammate and he did and I'm happy where he is right now.
Corey Holmes' speed translating to field?
That's a good question. There's track speed and there's in-line, straight line speed and then there's quite frankly football speed. I think that that's been the struggle for Corey the first couple years is to get that to translate and through playing fast and playing with confidence and I think he's gaining that. He's gaining the confidence and we're seeing definitely a different football player. He's not Will Fuller's speed yet, certainly. Although he runs at the same speed, he's not playing at the same speed yet. I think he's capable. He's certainly not there yet, but he's moving and trending in the right direction.
Left side of the offensive line dominant?
Those two players are really good. Really, really good. Mike's been our most efficient blocker and Quenton is in the best physical shape he's been in, moves extremely well for 346 pounds and he's a rare, rare, rare football player. He moves well, physically strong. Knows his assignments. We're very, very fortunate. And Sam's been very good. Those three guys are really, really solid football players for us and we would love the competition that is going on the right side.
We want to get Hunter Bivin over the next probably four or five periods of practices and in particular the periods where there's team competition we're getting him some guard work. We want to kick Bars out to some tackle work because we're still in a very competitive mode there on the right side. It's just exciting to see all these guys compete. There's good football players on the right side. We're still not there in terms of who's going to be where at those positions.
Anyone out there right now that can give you Fuller's speed to stretch the field?
Torii Hunter would be that guy right now. I think he's got top-end speed, elite speed. He can compete with the very best in the country. Corey is trending that way. He's not there yet. He's got to play with more confidence and attack the football a little bit more aggressively. Torii Hunter would be a guy right now that could continue to grow into that position. Those two guys have the skills necessary and Stepherson — I hate to put a lot on a freshman — right now he is an outstanding ball catcher. Maybe our best right now in terms of catching the football.
Corey Robinson
We're going to get an evaluation with the specialist to make sure we're covering all the bases with him. He's had a couple concussions. Obviously we want to do everything that we can to get him all the information necessary so we don't put him in a position where he doesn't feel comfortable getting back on the field. We'll do that next week and we'll have him in a better position relative to making a decision when we get back on the field.
Trumbetti
Good. We've just got to get him to cut it loose. Still a little bit at times we'd like to just see him go. There's just a little bit of apprehension at times and that's just confidence, but he's doing some good things. We just need to see it on a little more consistent basis.
We got some more activity out of Daelin Hayes today. He did some skelly and a little bit of pass rush. Good looking kid. We'll continue to work him. Jay Hayes is doing some good things for us. We're seeing some more consistency now that he's at a position where he feels a lot more comfortable. That position continues to evolve for us as well.
Daelin taking some contact?
We're being very cautious and he's got a shoulder we want to make sure is in a position that we're not pushing him in spring ball. He's in a harness. We're going to pick our spots with him. We're going to put him in a position where we can see some things from him, but I don't think we're going to overdo anything and put him in a very competitive situation.
How does Morgan bring people with him on defense
He's a physical player. Bringing that physicality to every practice, that physical toughness to our defense. Joe Schmidt was a smart player. He was a heady player. But he wasn't the most physically gifted player that we had. Nyles Morgan is a tough, physical football player. What we've asked him to do is be himself. You're not Joe Schmidt. He's doing a great job of getting us lined up. Now that you've got that and that's not an issue, he's a physical, tough player. We want that personality to come out and if that does, he will bring others around you and that toughness will start to show itself.
What do you want to see the rest of the spring?
I'd say more than anything else the receiver group, the young guys to continue to progress and gain consistency there. I would say from a competitive standpoint offensively, continue to run the ball effectively. We want to run the ball effectively offensively with three quarterbacks in there, three running backs.
Defensively, cornerback and safety play. We're a little thin at the linebacker position and we've got a slew of D-linemen that we want to continue to see develop. We've got a lot of work with those guys. Spring ball is really the development of that defensive line and defensive backfield on the defensive side.
Goal line and red zone self scouting
We had a young quarterback. He saw some things for the first time. The red zone requires an efficiency relative to throwing the football or running the ball and what we've tried to do a little bit later in the year that was more effective was running the football. We turned the ball over against BC, but we were trying to run the ball later in the year to help our quarterback. I think that that's what we went to, but we were effective and efficient against Stanford trying to run the ball. When we threw it, we weren't. Red zone efficiency is running the football and having a quarterback who is experienced down in that zone. It's not really scheme down there as much as quick decisions, being efficient, accurate and having a really good running game.
Spencer Perry
He's a long athlete. We're trying to find a spot for him right now and just giving him some different opportunities. He's young. He's developmental in terms of picking up the position right now. We really like him. It's going to take some work. We're going to need some more time with him. We just want to see him in different positions right now.
St. Brown
We're moving him around. We've got him at W quite a bit. Torii's kicked out to the X position. We wanted to see Torii out more at the X and EQ more at the W. We like the size at the W position more because of the short field matchups you get there. What I like about EQ is obviously his speed and size with the physical traits and he's really smart. He picks up the entire offense. He's got to be a more consistent ball catcher. That's what we've got to get from him more and I think he attacks the ball a little more aggressively. Those are the areas he needs to improve on. I really like his smarts, his physical conditioning and love his skill set in terms of his size. Attacking the football is what we're working on right now.
